Kayla Frost

Touring musicians are road warriors. Traveling to a different city nearly every day, often in cramped vans or buses, they become adept at rolling with the punches, getting along with others, and making cultural connections (through their music and otherwise). That’s why they’re the perfect people to dole out tips to us travel dabblers.

When I arrived in Talkeetna, Alaska, Mayor Stubbs was lounging near a pile of Beanie Babies, fighting to keep his eyes open. His office, on the top floor of Nagley’s General Store, was filled with knickknacks and cages full of screeching green birds. A little girl with tumbling blonde pigtails leaned over Stubbs and whispered, “I can’t believe this is the mayor!”

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